Out of the Cage
by abstow89
Summary: A Benwolf creature named Kenros and a mercenary named LJ travel across the world looking for tools to defeat a deadly race of species. Look for other Ben 10 creatures in the story.
1. Cacti Fruits 'n' Mercs

Out of the Cage

**Out of the Cage**

This Ben 10 Fanfiction is about a red Loboan with green eyes named Kenros who's out to find a rare item and runs into a mercenary along the way.

Rated T for mild language, violence, and crude humor.

**1**

**Cacti Fruits 'n' Mercs**

All I have to do is find this jewel and I'll have enough power to fight off the Remquists! Last I remember, it should be somewhere near this canyon entrance. I still don't understand how this can defeat the Remquists, but what the hell. I don't really have a choice here.

"You!"

"Freeze!"

"What's this here? National Guard out on daily patrol?" I asked.

"Shut up dog!! I don't know what you are, but I do know that you're trespassing into government property."

I scoffed. "This canyon is government property? Looks a little…barren to me. Besides, I'm not the bad guy."

"Stop wasting your foul breath!"

"Hey, I find that offensive! My wolf breath's not that bad."

"Come on man, I can smell it all the way from here! You need some mouthwash!"

I growled gutturally at the two privates, hoping it would scare them into dropping their guns and letting me pass.

"Turn around now or we're gonna--"

I used my ultra sonic howl and the guards were lifted off their feet and they fell right onto a cactus, skinning their faces and knocking them out.

"Why didn't I do that earlier?"

Using my highly improved senses, I managed to avoid any more guards by traversing around them or knocking them out a lot more quietly than the last two. Man, this is TOO EASY! There's gotta be some super trap or mega-weapon or something here that's supposed to stop me! …Or maybe I should be happy there isn't any deadly trap.

**Half an hour later…**

"Sorry Marine; I'm gonna snap your neck now." I said, holding a marine from behind.

I snapped his neck and hid his corpse in one of the containers shipping out of the facility. So those Marines were right, they were guarding some sort of government area. It's just buried underground. Good thing I'm a Loboan otherwise I wouldn't have heard a guard walk through a secret trap door. I continued to walk down the pathway, hiding behind a corner to avoid two marines walking to another section of the complex.

"Now, this crystal thing should be right behind this door. Hmm…I bet it's got a bobby trap set for intruders like me. Maybe I should take this air vent."

I jumped up and pushed open a grate and climbed inside the air vent.

"Damn it's cramped in here! Are these air spaces supposed to be this small?"

After traveling through a series of corners and nearly falling down another grate, I kicked open the trap door leading into the room where the jewel capable of defeating the Remquists is. It was glowing a shiny red and hovering in mid-air as if someone was just waiting to walk to it and snatch it away. All I have to do is walk another 10 steps and I'll be closer to defeating the Remquists. 8…7…6…5…4--

"UHH!!" I groaned.

What the hell--who just kicked me?!

"You should never have come here, Loboan. Hunting animals like you is what I do for a living."

"Bring it on mercenary! Bring it on!"


	2. Loboan vs Human

**Out of the Cage**

Kenros and the mercenary decide to brawl it out, only to have a Splixson sneak in the compound and steal the crystal from under their noses.

**Chapter 2: Loboan vs. Human**

"Your move, mercenary! Come on, let's see how bad you humans really are." I said.

The mercenary tried to Roundhouse kick me, but I moved back in the nick of time and clawed him on the face. A huge set of scratches were on his head and he was bleeding.

"You son of a bitch!" yelled the mercenary.

"You infected me with Loboanism...whatever that is."

"No I didn't. Lucky for you, I can't infect you humans with my claws. If I bit you on the other hand..."

I lashed out a the mercenary again, this time trying to bite him on the chest. It has been a while before I've eaten anything, and humans are indeed very tasty...

"Ow!!"

He slit my eye!

The mercenary scoffed. "Who's afraid of the Big, bad wolf? Not me."

I growled gutturally at him and we started fighting again.

* * *

While Kenros and the mercenary were fighting each other, a Splixson who looked a lot like Ditto if he were blue, crawled through an air vent and jumped to the ground and walked up to the crystal, whistling to himself and simply looked at the two bite back at each other.

"Oh, this is getting good. I should just stay here and keep watching until they both die! But I guess I should bring this crystal back to Doxen before he realizes I'm slacking off again. Ah, well."

The Splixson swiped the crystal and calmly walked away from the compound.

**20 minutes later...**

The merc and I are battered and bruised with scratches and many scars on our bodies. I just wished the guy didn't slice my eye! I'm already colorblind as it is!

"Playtime's over pup. Let me finish this the way I should've 20 minutes ago."

The mercenary held out an M16.

"Stop, stop, stop, stop! Wait a minute!"

"Oh, look, the little werewolf is scared of death."

"Shut up. If I wanted to, I could break your gun with my teeth before you even fired one round! How many times do I have to say it: I'M NOT THE BAD GUY!!"

"Yeah?! Well who is then?!"

"Whoever stole the crystal while we were fighting."

The mercenary laughed.

"What're talkin' about werewolf? The crystal's right over th--" He gasped.

Despite the fact I'm pretty much screwed here since I didn't just grab the crystal and split, I still laughed at the mercenaries stupidity.

"Looks like someone beat us both to the prize. I can't tell you who might have the crystal for the sake of...galactic warfare, but if you let me come with you, we can work together to find it."

"Why would I align myself with a Loboan like you?"

"Can you literally_ smell _the creature who stole the crystal? I can, and by the smell of it, I'm pretty sure it's a Splixson."

"Splixson?"

"You humans call it Ditto since they can clone themselves."

"Hmm...so I either join forces with you or we're never gonna find this crystal?"

"No, either you join forces with me or I can see what your liver tastes like with lemon pepper in a taco shell."

"Fine." He muttered. "But don't think this makes us friends!"

"Like I'd become friends with a human!"

* * *

Miles away from the compound, we continued to walk down a dirt road, trailing the fugitive Splixson to his destination.

"I don't understand how you Loboan's can smell your way through situations like these!"

"We're related to werewolves and canines."

"That figures."

"...What does that mean?"

"Nothing, nothing. You got his scent yet?"

"...I got a bunch of scents."

"Holy crap!"

Somehow my nose lead us to a field of dead bodies and abandoned military vehicles. Looks like the work of the Remquists.

"One Ditto did this much damage?!"

"I doubt it. He probably had some more friends along to help him."

"What do they even want with this crystal?"

"What do you want with the crystal? You don't work for this military group. I can tell by your uniform."

"You ever heard of eBay wolf? What do you want with it?"

"Let's just say I need it or else this whole universe gets destroyed. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't stop anyone who gets in my way. ...Like you." I whispered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

"No, no. I just heard something in the bushes..."

Hmm...I jumped to the bush where he heard a twig snap and sighed with relief realizing it was just a rabbit. I grabbed it by the ears.

"It's just a rabbit. A tasty...little rabbit." I said, licking my lips.

"Oh, you're not gonna--"

I put the rabbit in my mouth and started chewing and smacking on the meat.

"Aw, man! That's just wrong dude."

"It was just a rabbit. It's not like I ate a deer or a unicorn."

The mercenary sighed. "Are we getting closer yet?"

I glanced up to see a mighty battleship cruiser staring at us straight in the face. It was huge, at least three cruise ships long and about twice as thick.

"How does something like this land a few miles from the base?!"

"Beats me. The important thing is that we found it now so we gotta find the Splixson that did this and get that crystal--"

I immediately hid behind a vehicle when I heard the merc grunt and fall on the ground. One of those Splixson's must've gotten to him. Oh, well.

"There's no one else down here. What should we do with this guy Doxen?"

"Find out what he knows and see if he told anyone. And check to see if anymore intruders are here."

I pinned one of the Splixsons to the ground and broke his neck, hiding his body under a demolished truck. Now all I gotta do is catch Doxen and--"

* * *

Kenros grunted when one of Doxen's cronies shocked him in the throat with a stun gun.

"Pathetic. I thought you Loboans where more alert than this. Doxen! You want this creature on the ship too?"

"Yes. Take 'em both."


	3. Slowly

**Out of the Cage**

Kenros and the mercenary are captured by Doxen and his band of Ditto thugs. If they don't escape in time, they're in big trouble!

**Chapter 3: Slowly…**

"Uhhh….what just happened? Where am I…?"

I looked left and right, realizing my hands tied behind my back. …Am I hanging upside-down?

"What the hell?! Damnit, they caught me! How could I let a Splixson sneak up on me like that?!"

"You tell me." said the mercenary.

He wasn't having any good fortune either. The Splixson's tied his hands and feet to the wall as though he were trying to make a snow angel...with metal. I get the feeling we're flying somewhere above the Earth's atmosphere, hopefully not flying to an execution zone.

"Wake up Loboan." said Doxen.

I ignored him, pretending to still vaguely notice him.

"I said wake up!!"

"OWW!!" Did you just slap me?!

"Welcome to my spaceship Loboan. I hope you don't mind our 'methods' of saying hello to intruders."

One of his cronies began to laugh, but it sounded very guttural; even deeper than my voice.

"A simple 'what's up?' would've been fine."

"Yeah, sorry we had to tie you up by the way, but it was a lot easier to drag you up here. You ever wash those stinky wolf feet of yours? We could barely handle the stench when we dragged you on board!! I mean, do you ever take the time to sniff those babies?"

"Oh, man! PU! And how 'bout that stinky wolf breath of his?! You got any gum" asked his crony.

Doxen and his crony started to laugh at me.

"Say I got bad hygiene again. I dare you; I double dare you."

"Well...we haven't talked about his fleas yet..." said Doxen.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!"

I tried biting off Doxen's face, but it was impossible with me tied to that pipe upside-down.

"Okay, okay, we've had our fun. Let's just wait two more hours. That's when the REAL fun begins!"

"What happens in two hours?" asked the mercenary.

"Why does that matter? You're gonna die either way." said his crony.

The mercenary glanced at Doxen's crony and muttered, "I know you."

"What?"

"You're that orange Ripjaws I found swimming in that pool, eating all those people."

"Piscciss Volann, merc."

The Piscciss Volann ran up to the mercenary and held a knife up to his neck.

"You're the one that killed my family!"

"That's right!"

"Hey, stop!" shouted Doxen, running up toward the mercenary before he slit his throat.

"It's like you said, Sproksin, they're gonna die anyway. You can wait two hours."

Sproksin growled gutturally at the merc, staring him dead in the eye, revealing his sharp set of teeth.

"You die first," he said, tapping his knife on the merc's nose.

"And then you." he said, pointing at me.

Doxen and Sproksin walked out the room we were tied in and the metal sliding door shut behind them, immediately locking itself. ...We are not in a good position right now.

"What's with you and fish-boy?"

"I went fishing and caught very, very big fish..."

"Only, they weren't fish, right?"

"I'm pretty sure fish can't talk..."

"Hey, you got a name? I don't want to run around shouting merc all the time."

He sighed heavily and muttered, "Leslie."

I laughed out loud and shouted, "You're name's Leslie?! That's a girl name!"

"Shut up! My father's name was Leslie and he served in Iraq! Just...call me LJ."

"Okay, Leslie Junior!"

"Fine, you think you're so smart, then how do we get outta this torture chamber in less than two hours?"

"...Let me think that through first."

**One hour later...**

"GOT IT!!"

"It took you one hour to think of a plan!!"

"At least I got one. You see those keys hanging up there?"

"Yeah..."

"I'm gonna swing myself up there and grab 'em with my mouth."

"How long is that gonna take?"

"Umm..."

**Half an hour later...**

"HURRY IT UP!!"

I swung myself as hard as I could and knocked the keys down with my tongue. I swung myself back and got the keys with my mouth.

"Yes!! Now just--"

"I know what I'm doing!" I said, in a muffled way.

Okay, just twist my arms in front of me, put the key into the handcuffs, twist my head, and there. Problem solved! Better bite off the ropes so I can get down.

"Nice! Now unlock me!"

"Uh, no."

"What?! You're just going to leave me hanging up here?!"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"You asshole!!"

I laughed. "I'm gonna come back! Besides I doubt Doxen is stupid enough to keep both the keys that unlock us in here."

"Well can you at least scratch my nose before you go? OWW!!"

I grabbed a wrench and threw it at his face. "See ya."

* * *

20 minutes left before LJ gets executed. Now I just need to get to the control booth in this part of the ship.

It shouldn't be too hard to creep past all these Splixson's...except maybe that one by the door. I slowly walked over to a Splixson standing guard near a set of explosives.

"Psst!"

"Hey, who's there?"

The Splixson turned around and saw nothing when I quickly hid inside a trash container. As he looked inside, I yanked him in, covered his mouth, and snapped his neck.

"That's one down."

Two Splixson's were looking straight ahead with flashlights, shining them back and forth.

"So, how do you think they're gonna do that mercenary?"

"Depends on who does it. If it's Doxen, he's just gonna walk in and shoot him in the face."

"What if it's Sproskin?"

The other one chuckled.

"Let's just say it's gonna be bloody."

I punched one of them in the back of the head, knocking him down.

"What the--"

I snapped the other ones neck. Before the other one got up, I jumped on the Splixson's chest, crushing his ribs in the process.

"How am I gonna get that guy from that door without anyone knowing?"

I decided to look inside the crate of explosives to see if I can use something as a distraction. Hmm...someone left some fiber wire in this crate. I took it and hopped on top of the control booth, crawling right above the guarding Splixson. When he was about to walk away, I garroted him until he stopped thrashing and kicking, dragging his body on top of the booth.

"Amazing how nobody has spotted me yet." I muttered to myself.

I opened up the door and found another set of keys on the control panel.

"Got 'em! Now I just need to free LJ."

* * *

"Did you get the keys?"

"No, I just walked around to stretch my legs."

"Just shut up and unlock me." demanded LJ.

I walked over to him and unlocked his hand and leg cuffs, freeing him from the wall.

"Thanks."

"You're not gonna give me crap about my breath, are you?" I asked.

"Better than Sproksin's fish breath!"

"Good. Now we just need to get out of here before those Splixson's find us."

Now that we've escaped from our prison encapturemnt, we can find a way to blow this ship up.

"Did you kill anyone before you got these keys?"

"Yeah."

"Did you remember to hide the bodies, y'know so they don't, uh, set off the alarms?!"

"...Maybe."

The alarms began to ring. Someone must've spotted the two bodies I left out.

"That is NOT a good sign."


	4. Loboan vs Splixson

**Out of the Cage**

LJ and Kenros must figure out how to get the crystal back and escape the ship while simultaneously attacking a battalion of Splixsons.

**Chapter 4: Loboan vs. Splixson**

"Why was it so hard to hide two bodies from these guys?!" yelled LJ.

"Just shut up and keep firing!" I shouted, shooting a Splixson twice in the chest.

Both of us were ducking and shooting Splixson's left and right, trying to get into the central platform bay. Doxen might not be there, but I know that his hench guards are gonna ship it back to those Remquists as soon as possible. Another Splixson went down and another appeared. I shot two more in the face, and four more appeared.

...Does anyone see an unfair pattern here?

I growled. "Get on the catwalks!"

LJ and I ran outside the prison quarters and shut the door, locking it.

"That should keep them occupied for a while. Come on, let's get to the bay before more Splixson's show up."

**20 minutes later...**

"God, why is this walkway so long?! Why can't the door just pop up right in front of us?" complained LJ.

He suddenly clunked into a large metal structure: a cloaked door in the middle of the walkway.

"Oww."

"You found the door!"

"I can see that. Now if I can just find the knob..."

LJ moved his hands over the door, trying ot find some form of obstruction to open it.

"There's no knob."

"Yeah there is, you just can't find it."

LJ started banging on the cloaked door and it got to the point where he was just tryingto break it down.

"Damnit, there's no knob!"

"Yes, there is!" I laughed.

LJ groaned exasperatedly and started rapidly punching and kicking at the door. He even began to shoot at it with his M4.

"WHERE'S THE KNOB?!"

I was out the floor howling with laughter. How stupid must LJ be to not realize you must do "something" to open these kinds of door? But...what is that something we must do?

"We're stuck here!"

"Not unless someone rapidly pops up right behind me and--"

Someone kicked me from behind. Doxen. I can recognize his blue skin and red eyes from here.

"Okay Kenros...I thought you wouldn't be this big of a burden on my side, but apparently, you are." he said, holding up a knife made of plasma.

"All right then. Let's do this!" yelled LJ.

Both of us charged towards Doxen and started kicking and punching at him. But with that plasma knife in his hand, it's very hard to land a blow on him without getting hurt ourselves.

"Come on!! I thought the great Loboan was tougher than this! Or maybe your fleas are biting you too hard for you to fight well."

Something red twinkled in my eye and I violently jumped towards Doxen and punched him 12 times in the face and kicked him in the cheek before he could react. He had a bruise on his head and blood was flowing out his mouth. LJ tried the same method, but he got sliced in the arm and in the head. ...I think.

"HAH!! You missed me--"

Four hair spikes fell off the top of his head.

"You...You cut my hair!!" he yelled.

"I thought that was a porcupine? It's too spiky for me to tell the difference."

Both of us looked at each other, completely pissed off by Doxen and his comments. We yelled out loud and charged into Doxen, busting down the cloaked door and leading us into the platform bay. Inside were several different types of ships, some large enough to scale a small invasion on Earth. After we rolled down a metal ramp, Doxen held a gun out on us. If LJ hadn't lost his M4 and I wasn't out of bullets, we'd do the same.

"You cheated." I muttered gutturally.

"At least I didn't duplicate myself 12 times."

"True..."

"I think you forgot something very important about us Loboans, Doxen."

"What's that?"

I roared loud enough to shatter his gun and send him hurling into a ship. He quickly got up and we started fighting again.

"Go get the ship started!" I yelled to LJ. He ran into a cruiser and began getting the controls started.

Meanwhile, I punched Doxen twice in the stomach and elbowed him to the ground. Before I could stomp his face in, he tripped me and kicked me in the face twice.

I grabbed his hand a third time and muttered, "Gotcha." squeezing real hard.

"OWW!!" He bit my hand!

Doxen found a large metal support bar and whacked me in the head with it.

"You cheater! OW!!"

I roared again, but it wasn't strong enough to shatter the metal. ...But he did bring his guard down, leading me to jump-kick him. I clawed him on the face and stomach so deeply, I'm surprised none of his intestines fell out. Both of us were panting heavily and sweating, wondering which one of us was going to fall down first. I suddenly charged into him and got on top of him, punching the snot of his face. No seriously, snot started flying out his face! I shouldn't have let my guard down though, because that was when he kicked me in the chin and punched me in my wounded eye. He stood up and stepped down on my neck, trying to choke me with his foot. Even though his face was ravaged, I could still see the angry glare in his eyes. He took out another plasma knife and I clutched his hand before it penetrated my eye.

"You're gonna...lose strength...sometime."

Damn, he's right. That is not even two inches from my retinas. A couple more seconds and I'm a dead wolf. Right when he shoved his knife down, I rolled my face sideways (wounding my eye again) and grabbed the knife, throwing it at a rope supporting a large yellow and black striped metal construction bar. It began to swing down at him like...well, a swing. He didn't even have time to react. He simply muttered, "Oh shi--" before the bar swatted him at the wall like a baseball. Thank God it didn't smash into my nose.

I walked onto the ship with LJ and shouted, "FEEL FREE TO HELP AT ANY TIME!!"

"You were doing fine. Hey!"

I ripped off part of his camouflage outfit and wiped my face with it.

"You have any idea how much it cost to find a red and brown camouflage uniform?"

"Shut up and just drive the ship."

"Umm..." LJ stared at the control panel, trying to find some sort of button that would start it.

"So which button--"

"The big green one that says start LJ!"

"...I knew that."

LJ pressed the button and the cruiser automatically started itself and flew outside of the battleship. I took out a detonator and extended the antenna with my teeth.

"You wanna blow it?"

"Blow what?"

"Press it and find out." I said, smiling.

LJ pressed the button and turned around, seeing that the battleship exploded into multiple segments.

"COOL!"

"That's one less Remquist space station to worry about."

Man, this has been a fulfilling night. A fight with a mercenary, escaping a horde of Splixson's, killing one of the Remquists' captains. It's been fun...and yet I feel like I forgot something... Wait a minute!! I did forget something!

"Where's that crystal?!" I yelled.

"That red thing Doxen had? Didn't he take it into the control booth...?"

I angrily gritted my teeth, realizing that I could've snatched the crystal when I was getting the keys. How am I gonna defeat the Remquists now? I need those crystals!

"Son of a--"

* * *

In the cold vastness of space, the red crystal was re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. It landed in a jungle somewhere in South America. The only problem though, was that Acknit, another crony of the Remquists, found it before Kenros and LJ turned around to land back on Earth.

How will they ever get it back...?


	5. The Remquists

**Out of the Cage**

Kenros has a disturbing nightmare and finally tells LJ what the Remquists are.

**Chapter 5: The Remquists**

"Damnit, damnit, damnit!" I yelled.

"What're we gonna do now Kenros?" asked LJ.

"We gotta turn back around. That crystal must be back on Earth; it had to have re-entered the atmosphere."

"Yeah, most crystals are indestructible. I just wish we could find out...was that crystal radioactive?"

"Are you kidding me?! I'm surprised your kidneys haven't fallen out yet!"

"...Anyway...I got this Geiger counter so we can just track the particles in the atmosphere and find out where it landed."

"Wow, you actually thought of something smart for once. OWW!!" He threw a wrench at my nose!

* * *

"Well, from what the counter says, that crystal must be close. I just hope no more Dittos--"

"Splixsons!"

"Whatever. As long as they haven't found the crystal yet, we should find it in a few hours."

I yawned and scratched the back of my head. "Y'know what? I'm exhausted. Let's just sleep on this until later in the morning."

LJ sighed. "Yeah. I'm a little wiped out too. I'll wake you up in a few hours."

(Kenros' Dream sequence)

"You betrayed us...you betrayed us..."

"You're not my friend...you're not even my brother...you're nothing."

"NO!! No! This...this was not my fault. I--" I couldn't find the right words.

"YOU DID THIS TO ME!! YOU KILLED YOUR OWN FAMILY!"

"SHUT UP!! I didn't mean for this to happen! Please, believe me!"

Someone laughed evilly behind me.

"Yessss, you were the one who doomed your family. You killed your family, you killed them all."

"You crustacean bastard! YOU'RE THE ONE THAT KILLED THEM!! GIVE ME BACK MY FAMILY!!"

"I can't. Not until you realize what you've done. You'll have to live with the guilt that you killed them and millions of others. And there's absolutely nothing you can do about it!!"

"No! NOOOO!!"

(End Dream Sequence)

"No!" I yelled, waking up panting.

"Damnit...why can't I stop having the same dreams? I know it was my fault but...I never wanted this to happen. I'm sorry..."

**8:00 a.m.**

Both of us woke up and started stretching, looking around at all the fauna and tropical plants.

LJ abruptly asked, "You know, you still never told me what your doing here."

"No I didn't. If we could just--"

"When I was five, some people broke into our house and raped my mom. I couldn't really do anything to stop them; I was tied up and gagged. And it was kinda weird, cause I was happy that the rapist revealed his name to me and I saw his face. So...I waited 12 before I hunted the man down with a metal baseball bat."

"What d'you do to him?"

"Uhh...let's just say he can't even blink without shaking now. Anyway, I went to prison for three years for 'battery' and when I got out, I really didn't care. It felt good just to beat the crap out of that guy."

"So you became a mercenary."

"Something like that. Now I can beat the crap outta people and get paid for it."

I sighed heavily and scratched the back of my head.

"There, I've told you something about my personal life. Now it's your turn."

I stares at him and sighed.

"You know that guy named Tetrax?"

"That Diamondhead mercenary who worked for Vilgax?"

"Petrosapien!"

"Whatever, damn."

"We met each other on planet Petropia shortly before it was destroyed. He introduced me to some crustacean...thing called Pyrilz. After that we went our separate ways: I worked for Pyrilz, and Tetrax for Vilgax. I spent months working for that lobster freak, putting together this almighty weapon that could help him conquer the universe. But I didn't care; I was getting paid well. ...That's was the biggest mistake I could ever make."

"What happened?"

"He attacked my home planet, like Vilgax did with Tetrax. Only, he didn't just blow it up. Pyrilz sent every crustacean soldier he had and issued a genocide: Anyone with fur that howled at the moon with jaws was killed. It didn't matter who, women or children, they were all slaughtered."

"And you just stood there?!"

"Of course not!! Half of the creatures working with me were Loboans! We were all outraged and we tried to kill him right on his battleship. But many other alien species loyal to him went against us too. One of them was my brother. Another two were personal friends of mine."

"Did your family survive?"

It was that question that almost made me whine like a puppy.

"...No. My brother and my friends were killed by Pyrilz and my family didn't make it off the planet."

"..."

"I'm scared just to fall asleep; I always have the same nightmares! Ghosts of my family blame me for their demise and they're right! It's all my fault...OWW!!"

"I'm sorry I threw a wrench at you, but get real! You had nothing to do with your people's slaughter, you had no idea Pyrilz was going to do that! How can you seriously blame yourself--I mean, how?!"

"I helped him in the first place..."

"That's not the point! Why--why did he even attack your home planet?"

"CAUSE HE'S AN ASSHOLE!!" I angrily shouted.

"...That's it?"

"He's a sadistic asshole, that's all there is too it. There was a chance when I was wounded, on the ground defenseless and my brother and friends were recaptured. He could've let them walk away or even keep them prisoner...but he looked at me, smiled, and personally gunned 'em all down. Then he said. 'Let's see what you do now.' Do you get it now? He is responsible for all those deaths...just so he could see what will happen next!"

"That's doesn't necessarily mean--"

"He shot one of his own men's brains out just to see if it would kill him or not!"

I sighed again, trying to cool down.

"What did you do?"

"I've been spending the last 200 years of my life--"

"Whoa, wait...is that in dog years or...?"

"Human years. I'm over 200 years old."

"Damn!"

"And I've spent much of that time looking for this one crystal. It'll lead me towards the others and I'll finally stop that bastard from doing this again."

"You know, here on Earth, we have a saying: Revenge is a dish--"

"--Best served cold, I know. This isn't just about revenge. I've told you already that this guy is a sadist and he has done to several other planets as to what he did to mine. His cronies are just popping up here for no reason. What happens if your family suffers the fate of mine?"

LJ's eyes grew wide.

"Tetrax redeemed himself when he saved the universe from the exploding Omnitrix watch five years ago. Hopefully I can do the same. I just want to stop him before it's too late again."

"...That's a lot to get off your chest."

"Doesn't mean we're still friends. I still deem you expendable."

"Thanks dude, that makes me feel so much better."

"...I never said I hate you now, did I?"

LJ smiled a bit, sighing with relief. I guess now he doesn't have to worry about me eating him alive.

"So now you know about the Remquists."

"Yeah. Well, let's go find this crystal before I tell you I went to school naked in the 8th grade."

I stopped walking and smiled at him.

"Don't you d--don't you dare tell anyone!!"

"Sure I won't."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"I don't know, was it?"

"Damnit, Kenros you are not going to tell anyone about this!"

"Sure I'm not." I said, walking past him.

"Kenros? Kenros!! Ken--Oh shit."


	6. Fly Swatter

**Out of the Cage**

LJ and Kenros find out that the crystal is inside a Stinkfly campground. They need to get it back as quickly as possible. 

**Chapter 6: Fly Swatter**

"Dude, what the hell is that smell?!" yelled LJ.

I groaned. "It's a bunch of Lepidopterrans, what else?"

"Don't you mean Stinkflies?"

I grunted, trying not to correct LJ.

"Yes…yes, they're Stinkflies. "

Two black Lepidopterrans were patrolling alongside the river, holding MP5s.

"All right, let's get 'em!"

"Wait LJ!" I said, snatching him back down.

"They have wings you idiot. As soon as we fire, they're gonna fly away and warn whoever they're captain is."

LJ sighed and stared at me. "I got an idea."

LJ put his hands behind his back and said, "Grab my hands."

"Wait, what? HEY!!"

Before I even knew what was happening, I was leading LJ right into the sights of the Lepidopterrans.

"Well lookie here! Looks like one of you Loboans captured us a human!" said one of them.

"Uh, that's right! Caught a spy trying to get our blueprints!"

"Is that so? Bring him over here so we can shoot him."

Not even a millisecond later, LJ shot both Lepidopterrans in the chest, killing them.

"Wow, you actually thought up something smart for once."

"Shut up."

A Lepidopterran came from behind a tree and yelled, "CRAP!!" and began to fly away.

"He's getting away!" I yelled.

"No he's not. Hand me that Durangov…"

LJ grabbed the Durangov sniper and looked through the periscope, aiming right for the fleeing Lepidopterran. He waited a few seconds, getting the feel of the rifle, then he fired. The bug went down like a fly getting swatted out of the sky. Even worse, he landed in the river and soon began to drown.

"Nice shot. I know he's not getting' back up."

* * *

Not too long later, we arrived at the Lepidopterran campsite, quietly creeping on our torsos and watching their patrol movements.

"This is gonna be tough. If any of those Stinkflys realize we're here, they can easily alert their captain and we're screwed." said LJ.

"So? All we gotta do is take 'em by surprise."

"Kinda hard to do when it's this sunny out don't you think?"

"Okay Einstein, what do you suggest we do?" I asked.

LJ thought for a moment and suddenly got an idea.

"You know of portable sprinklers they started selling at Wal-Mart?"

"…"

"…Anyway I bought one and--"

"Why the hell do you have a portable water sprinkler?

"It was on sale!"

"So if someone sold you a raccoon with worms and rabies and said it was for sale, you'd buy it?"

"Dude, I love raccoons."

I sat there and stared at him stupidly.

"Humans are stupid."

* * *

LJ threw the portable water sprinkler, letting it roll in the grass towards the middle of the crowd. One of the Stinkflys noticed it and looked down at it in confusion.

"Hey guys? Isn't this one of those portable--?"

Everyone began to scream as the sprinkler set off, spraying strong mists of water all over them. Some of them shook themselves dry while others began to shoot at the device until it stopped spraying water.

"WHO THREW THAT?! Don't you idiots understand we can't fly if we get our wings wet?!" yelled the leader of the group.

"…You serious dude?" One of the Lepidopterrans tried to fly, straining himself by furiously trying to flap his wings.

He groaned and said, "Nope. It doesn't work."

"Everyone be on your guard. We've got ourselves an intruder." said the leader.

"Gotcha."

* * *

"LJ, go hide in that tent over there and start taking out the Lepidopterrans." I said.

"The what?"

"The Stinkflies."

"Oh, yeah. I knew that."

LJ slowly walked over to a brown tent and cut open the back end. I clawed my way up a tree and took aim with my G36, looking directly at the squad leader.

"Man…it's gonna take forever to get dry again!" said a Lepidopterran.

"Or you could just shake yourself dry like I did."

One of them turned around when he heard a muffled shout and groan.

"…What was that?" asked the leader, before I shot him right through the back of the head.

LJ came out of the tent, holding an M4 Carbine and a blue FN P90.

"ENEMY!!" yelled a Lepidopterran.

And that was the cue for all the shooting and turmoil to begin. I shot two more Lepidopterrans in the chest twice and quickly jumped to another tree.

"THERE! HE'S UP IN THE--UHH!!" Before he could finish, the Lepidopterran was riddled with bullets to the back. Gotta admit though, LJ looks badass wielding two machine guns at the same time.

"WE NEED BACKUP!!" yelled another one.

LJ shot three more Lepidopterrans in half a second with the FN P90 alone and gunned down another four with his M4 Carbine. I continued to shoot them with my G36, gunning either for the chest or head. It was kind of getting tedious shoot jump, shoot jump, shoot jump, shoot…and jump.

"How many of you are there?!" I yelled.

"Damnit! Dry off you stupid wings!!" said a soaked Lepidopterran, who was shot seven times in the face by me and LJ.

"YEAH! You can't stop us you stinky insects!"

Finally. Only two more left.

"HOLD STILL! I'm gonna double tap you in the nose…" I muttered.

Which is what I did. I waited until both insects looked at me, ready to shoot their AK-74s and then I shot 'em both in the nose twice.

"PHEW!! That was intense! You all right LJ?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Lost a couple hair clippings but I'm fine."

"Good. All we gotta do now is find that crystal."

"Well that Geiger counter is starting to go crazy, so it should be close by."

"Great! As long as we don't--"

Something shot green slime at me from the sky. I narrowly dodged it and it hit the tree bark. I sniffed the air and got another whiff of more Lepidopterrans.

"LJ?"

"What?"

LJ screamed when one of the Lepidopterrans spat nasty green slime right on his face. I had to stifle a laugh and remember that we're still in danger before taking aim at the Lepidopterrans in the sky. LJ was struggling to get the slime off and dropped his guns, tearing away at his face. One of them threw a barrage of knives at me.

"HEY! What the hell--OWW!!" He hit me in the arm!

"Come down here and fight me like a man!!"

"Okay."

I coughed out a grunt when a Lepidopterran slammed right into me. I must be getting too old; I should've sensed that and shot him. He was just too fast for me. And now he's on top of me, slowly shoving a blade near my wounded eye…again.

"WHAT IS IT WITH YOU PEOPLE AND MY EYE!!" I yelled.

I kicked the Lepidopterran off me and we started fighting over the knife. It wasn't one of those fist-fights you see in movies. It was one of those Steven Seagal Get-the-Knife-Before-he-Kills-You-Kung-Fu fights. I took out my own knife and we started slicing our blades back and forth at each other.

"C'mon, let's see what you got!" said the Lepidopterran.

He yelped when I lightly jabbed my knife at his chest, toying with him. Then it became more violent…for him. A couple seconds later I ripped part of his left wing and he shouted, "HEY!!"

Then we started jabbing our knives against the others again, until I sliced my blade in an upward movement on his chest. He shouted and I kicked him twice in face.

"Get up pussy! GET UP!!"

Oh crap! He's got a gun! I quickly twisted the arm which held the gun and pointed it up, shooting the other Lepidopterrans out the sky.

"CHEATER!! YOU CHEATED IN A KNIFE FIGHT!! CHEATER!!" I shouted in his ear, still shooting the flies out the sky.

"Shut up! This is not cheating! OWWW!!" I twisted his arm harder.

"Cheater-cheater bo-beater, banana-fanna fo-feter, fe-fi fo-feater--CHEATER!!" I sputtered quickly.

"SHUT UP!! SHUT THE HELL UP!!"

"………Cheater."

"AAAARGHGHG!!"

He threw the gun down and took out his knife again, slitting my hand. He tried to stab me in the head, but I grabbed his hand and he grabbed mine. It was like arm-wrestling; only the loser would go home in a body bag instead of with a broken wrist.

"LJ! Little help here?!" I yelled.

But he was still on the ground, struggling to get the goop off his face. The blade was continuing towards my eye…again, ready to go through the pupil and into my skull.

"Fuck it! My eye's messed up already!" I shouted.

I quickly jerked my head sideways and let the blade scratch my eye. In doing so, I managed to get the Lepidopterrans knife with my teeth, spitting it to the ground.

"That knife just cost you your life." I said.

I grabbed all four of his eyes with both of my hands and squeezed so hard they all popped and made a disgusting squishy sound. H screamed in agony, but I guess I would too if someone crushed my eyes and green stuff came out. I stabbed in the chest and grabbed LJ's M4 Carbine, shooting him in the forehead. LJ was still struggling to get the slime off his face. I sighed.

"Hold still, let me get it off."

I grabbed the slime and violently ripped it off his face. LJ screamed, noticing his eyebrows were taken with it.

"You okay?"

"I have no freakin' eyebrows! What do you think?!"

"So you're fine then. Let's keep going."

"Go where? The Geiger counter's been destroyed in the fight, and we've killed every Stinkfly here."

"Not all of them. That guy over there is still alive." I said, pointing to a bleeding yellow Lepidopterran on the ground. We slowly walked over to him.

"All right, you know how this works: We ask you a question and you tell us--"

The Lepidopterran spat green slime towards LJ again and he got so angry he threw a wrench at him.

I sighed exasperatedly. "Why'd you do that?"

"I am not getting that stuff on my face again!"

"Yeah, but now you gotta carry him until he can speak again."

"Yeah…I gotta--what?"

"You heard me."

"Fine, just as long as I don't have to--OH MY GOD!"

"What?"

"His breath stinks!"

"So does mine and you can tolerate me!"

"You don't spit disgusting slime out of your mouth, that's the difference!"

He started retching violently and I'm pretty sure some spittle came out of his mouth.

"I'm gonna freakin' puke man…"

"Humans. Why is it every time your species find something disgusting you gotta throw up?"

"This is coming from an animal that sniffs his own ass?"

"I only did that once!"

I sighed and said, "Fine, I'll carry him."


	7. Devotion

**Out of the Cage**

A/N: I don't know why, but it's centered. So umm...it's centered.

With no other lead on the crystal, Kenros and LJ are forced to interrogate the wounded Stinkfly. Elsewhere, Sproksin decides to meet with the other captains and generals.

**Chapter 7: Devotion**

Several miles away from the crash site, Sproksin was meeting with all the of the Remquist cronies in an underground bunker. It was hollow and had little light inside, containing a couple light bulbs and some fluorescent tubes sticking out the ceiling. It wasn't a very formal meeting; in fact it wasn't formal at all. Almost none of the captains and generals liked each other and ALL of them would be very pleased if Sproksin wound up "dead" within a few days. So there they were, all sitting and standing around the table like they were some big committee.

"Whadaya mean it wouldn't make any difference?!" yelled Rust, pounding his fist on the table. He was one of the Remquists' Diamondhead captains.

"I already told you; we lost all the weapons on the spaceship and can't track them!" yelled Sproksin.

"Yeah, after you fled the ship like a coward!" boasted Ficks, a yellow XLR8.

"I do not come to these meetings just to be chastised by all you low-level followers!"

A blue wildmutt named Harsbreath growled deeply at the general, revealing a set of pointy white teeth.

"I came here to discuss what position we're in before The Remquists get here."

"And what is that exactly Sproksin? Do you even know about the enemies we're facing?"

Sproksin scoffed. "The mercenary's name is Leslie Tyverz Junior. He's 39, Caucasian, father deceased, mother raped when he was a child. He found the guy that did it and beat the shit outta him and wound up going to jail for it. So he suddenly decided to become a mercenary so he can go around beating the shit outta other people and legally get paid for it. He's been at it for 10 years and was in the army before then. I don't see why the army would accept someone who was in jail for three years, but whatever. He received weapons training, tactics, all that crap. He's got this thing for wearing blue and red camouflage and has hair so spiky that everyone thinks it's pricklier than a porcupine."

"So you have been doing your homework." said Ficks.

"Shut your mouth Ficks!" said Sproksin, breathing rapidly.

He was slowly dehydrating, like any normal Piscciss Volann would do. He grabbed a water bottle off the table and squirted it all over himself.

"I don't even have to tell you about Kenros."

"Of course not. You killed his family back on his home planet. I'm surprised he hasn't started gunning for you yet." said a green Splixson named Swimp.

"That cause he's smart not to just go gunning for the top. He kills me, you guys take over in finding and killing that Loboan."

"Or we could just leave your ass to die…" muttered Grizo, an Upgrade.

"I'm sorry Grizo, I didn't hear that. Did you just say you wanted to kill me?" asked Sproksin, holding a black Colt M1911 to his head.

"No, but if I cause an accident that led to your death--"

Sproksin fired his gun at Grizo…and if he hadn't caught and absorbed the bullet at the last second, he'd be dead. Grizo laughed.

"I was just kidding!"

"I wasn't."

Everyone suddenly went quiet. It was so silent that the only thing that could be heard was the wildmutts' growls and pants.

"Now…are we done talking?" asked Sproksin.

No one responded.

"Good. Now let's get back to our positions."

"What about the Lepidopterran Acknit?" asked a Heatblast.

"He should be fine, as long as no one breaks his colonel."

**Back in the Brazilian jungles…**

LJ and I were interrogating the wounded Lepidopterran inside one of the warehouses stored nearby. It wasn't going exactly as planned.

"Cuff his mouth LJ; I'm tired of him screaming." I commanded.

"This is only gonna hurt a lot!" he said, putting his right hand over the Lepidopterran's mouth.

I took a set of shears and cut off his second finger clean off, like I did with the first one. He simply shut his eyes tightly and grunted sharply, trying to ignore the pain. But let's face it; I just cut his finger off. He started vomiting all over LJ's hand.

"Aww, man! He got slime all over my hand!"

"That's not slime…" I said, smiling.

"I don't understand why low-level cronies like you just don't make life simple and tell us what we want to know."

"I…I'll never tell you what you want to know."

I punched the Lepidopterran in the face twice.

"The only reason why I haven't castrated you is cause I can't find where your balls are so you better be lucky that the only thing I'm cutting off is your fingers!"

"Let me tell you how this is gonna work: First, we're gonna cut off your last finger, then we're gonna cut off your other three fingers, and then we'll cut off your arms, and then we'll cut off your legs and wings. We're gonna keep cutting you and cutting you and cutting you and cutting you until you tell us what we need to know. Got it?!"

"That's right Lepidopterran. Maybe you tell us what we want to hear and I'll let you go. This way you can say some cougar bit your fingers off. Does that work for you?"

The Lepidopterran sighed and said, "I don't know what you want--"

"TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THE GODDAMN CRYSTAL!!!" screamed LJ, hitting him in the head repeatedly with a wrench.

"Go to hell." he moaned.

LJ swore and threw the wrench to the ground.

"This isn't working. We could cut this guy's eyes off and he still wouldn't talk."

"He'd scream…"

"How's screamin' gonna help us LJ?"

LJ shrugged. "Dunno; I just wanna hear him scream again. It sounds funny!"

"…I think I know what we should do. LJ?"

"Yeah?"

"You still got that--"

"Dead raccoon? Yeah, it's in my pocket."

I raised an eyebrow and looked confusedly at LJ.

"LJ…"

"What?"

"Why the fuck is there a raccoon in your pocket?"

"I told you, I like raccoons!"

"So you killed one and just…stuffed it in your pocket."

"Basically."

"…Does it have rabies?"

"Probably."

Damn! I was gonna eat that!

* * *

"Wow, you took me to a waterfall. That's so scary." said the Lepidopterran.

"It will be. LJ, dump the water on him."

"The what?"

The Lepidopterran started sputtering and coughing when LJ poured a full water bottle on his whole body, including his wings.

"Wow. You poured water on me. That's so badass."

"Shut up and jump!"

"NOOO!!!" squealed the Lepidopterran.

I grabbed the Lepidopterran by one of his legs and held him right over the waterfall. If I decided to let him go, he drops like a sack of potatoes and drowns.

"It's funny…out of all those gory horror movies they make today, they never decide to add the three worst ways to die: Burning to death, bleeding to death, and drowning. See, since you 'Stinkflies' can't fly when your wings are wet, you're gonna fall right to the bottom of this waterfall. If the thousands of galloons of water doesn't crush you to death or if the impact doesn't kill you, you're gonna drown…painfully."

"C'mon stink-breath! We just want to know about the crystal!" demanded LJ.

I loosened my grip so much I almost dropped him by mistake. He squealed.

"OKAY! I'LL TALK, I'LL TALK!!!"

* * *

"My name's Darcay, I work for a Lepidopterran named Acknit."

"So he's got the crystal?" asked LJ.

"Did I say that?"

"You didn't deny it."

"All I know is that he got the crystal when it fell from outer space. I don't know if he handed it off to someone of if he still has it or if he lost it."

"So where is he now?" I asked.

"There's a large section of shacks and houses that reside next to city inside a rainforest. It's like a giant mountainside of roads and small houses that you walk down upon. Amongst other things…"

"What 'other things' do you mean?" I asked.

"I've heard rumors about a whole platoon of umm…Vulpimancers stationed there. Something big is going to happen tomorrow, maybe even tonight."

"There's a whole platoon of vulpimancers in that city?!?"

"Yeah…and they're ready to be released."

"We gotta get there now."

"What for? What's a vulpimancer?"

"A Wildmutt."

LJ's eyes grew wide. "There's a whole platoon of wildmutts in that city?!?"

"I just said that!"

"No, you said vulpimancers."

I groaned. "Whatever, let's just go."

"Um…what about me guys?"

The two of us looked at the Lepidopterran.

"You're coming with us." I said.

"What for? I already told you everything I know!"

"Because we need collateral damage in case there's a firefight."

"Yeah! You're just cannon fodder!"

"I just said that."

"No, you said collateral--"

"Shut up LJ."

**5:16 p.m.**

The three of us arrived on the hills full of houses and shacks, hiding behind the forest and overlooking the various citizens walk around. It seems impossible that a whole army of Vulpimancers could be hiding somewhere in here, but then again, many things seem impossible these days.

"I don't see any wildmutts." said LJ.

"Oh, they're here…I can smell their breath from here."

"How can you--"

"What you humans need to understand is that we can smell practically 1000X better than you humans do. That's why even when you do bother wearing deodorant and taking showers every night you still stink to us canines."

"Damn, that sucks."

"How are we gonna get through without someone seeing us?" asked the Stinkfly.

"We wait until nightfall. Everyone will be asleep by then. That's when we'll strike."


	8. While you were Sleeping

**Out of the Cage**

LJ and Kenros gain another ally, while the Stinkyfly tries to escape the two at night.

**While you were Sleeping**

**8:32 p.m.**

"What do we need this Wildmutt for anyway?" asked LJ.

"All Wild--Vulpimancers smell nearly 12 times better than I do…and since the crystal is out of range of the Geiger counter, I don't think it'll help us out anymore." I said.

"How do you know he's in here?"

"I already told you; I got a whiff of their scent a couple hours ago. Besides this one sounds like it's in pain. We might as well go and help him out."

"Wait guys, how do you know he won't go insane and eat us?" asked the Lepidopterran.

"You've got nothing to worry about." said LJ.

"Yeah, Vulpimancers aren't fond of junk food." I joked.

"HEY!!" shouted the Lepidopterran.

All of us slowly walked through the cave, our feet splashing in the puddles of water and crunching on the trails of gravel. LJ shouted a couple of times when he kept hitting his kneecap on a bunch of stalagmites, ripping his pants open and revealing his skinned knee.

"Can we get there before I break my leg?" he asked.

"Shut up, I think I just found him."

The three of us turned a corner and saw what appeared to be a subdued red Vulpimancer in chains, growling softly and panting heavily. Even weirder is that he was wearing greenish-blue pants and looked like he had been tortured.

"Huh…last I remembered, Wildmutts were a lot more…"

"Vicious." added LJ.

The Vulpimancer made several light growls towards me.

"Ugh! Every heard of a breath mint Wildmutt?" asked LJ.

The Vulpimancer growled menacingly at LJ, ready to rip his head off.

"Damnit, why do I always run into some slimy, disgusting alien with bad breath? Why?!"

"I'm not slimy or disgusting! I'm hairy!" I protested.

"So? I've met five different aliens in the past couple of days and the only one whose breath didn't reek of dog crap or slime or feet or fish or any other disgusting smell was Doxen. Is it a tradition not to brush your teeth in the morning or something?"

"Yeah."

"Pretty much." said the Lepidopterran.

LJ sighed. "Why can't I just run into…like a gigantic fruity pebble? I could eat its head for breakfast."

The Vulpimancer interrupted us with his roar and struggled to get out the chains.

"Oh, right…the Wildmutt." said LJ.

He shot at the chains several times, hoping they would shatter and the Vulpimancer would break it off. But nothing happened.

"Y'know you humans should try biting things more often. It helps penetrate tough armor like this." I said.

I went over to the chains and bite down hard on them, up until it shocked my mouth and burned my mouth.

"OWWW!! What the hell was that?!"

The Vulpimancer growled at me.

"Yeah, that figures; they'd put shock collars on dogs."

"You actually understood that?" asked LJ.

"Canines are canines, no matter what we look like or how we talk. Of course I understand him."

"Maybe I can help him. Stand back for a second."

The Lepidopterran inhaled sharply a spat at the chains and we watched as the acids slowly corroded the metal and broke off the Vulpimancer's ankles and arms. The Vulpimancer growled at us again.

"He says his name's Hraggs and that some Stinkfly captain named Acknit isn't far from here."

"Um…is he gonna eat us? He's lookin' at me like I'm a chewtoy." said LJ.

"He's got no eyes! How can you tell?"

Hraggs growled several times again.

"No, he's not gonna eat you LJ, mostly because he thinks he'll choke on that porcupine on your head."

LJ brushed his hand across his spiky hairdo and Hraggs and I laughed.

"What is it with you guys and my hair lookin' like a porcupine?"

**9:24 p.m.**

"So what are we supposed to do now?" asked LJ.

Hraggs started growling.

"Yeah, we're gonna have to wait until tomorrow in the morning when the Wildmutts attack."

"…What?"

"Hraggs knows the attack pattern and the best ways to flank 'em before they put their full plan into play. If we attack now and so much as one of the Vulpimancer's wakes up, we're gonna get torn to shreds."

"So what do we do until then?" asked the Lepidopterran.

I shrugged. "I dunno. Wake me up later when you get an idea."

**12:37 a.m.**

Hraggs and Kenros were sleeping on the ground next to a campfire, snoring like crazy. The only reason why LJ didn't succumb to fatigue was because he still didn't trust the Stinkfly and couldn't stand the canines' snoring. It was actually kinda funny watching them sleep; Hraggs kept making light roars and was twitching like crazy and Kenros was sleeping with his mouth wide open and tons of saliva rolling down his face.

"So I'm guessing you're not tired?" asked the Stinkfly.

"Nope. I'm just gonna sit here all night looking at you."

"There's no reason to doubt my loyalty LJ."

"There was no reason for Acknit to doubt your loyalty either; look what happened now. Besides, you should already know by now that you're only collateral damage and we're just using you as a hostage."

"Where am I gonna go? It's too dark for me to fly and if it starts to rain out of nowhere I'm screwed again."

"Shut up. You're just trying to…"

LJ began to drift off and his head slowly fell downward, as though he were sleeping while he sat on the log. The Lepidopterran was about to move, but at the last second LJ yelped and woke back up again shaking his head.

"What?" asked LJ.

"You really need to get some sleep LJ."

"Shut up! I don't need no stinkin' slee--"

LJ's body abruptly lurched over and he fell face down into the dirt. The Lepidopterran waited a few minutes, trying to see if he was really asleep or if he was going to get back up again real soon. But when he started to hear the snoring, he knew that all three of them were completely unconscious. The Lepidopterran slowly walked over to LJ's body and took the M4 from under him and the pistols from his pockets. Then he walked over to Kenros and tried doing the same maneuver, only to get spit on his face when Kenros coughed up most of the saliva from his mouth.

"Nice."

The Stinkfly stuck his hand inside Kenros' pocket and carefully took his gun too. Then he tip-toed his way into the forest, getting far away before he took flight into the night sky.

**3:45 a.m.**

Rain. That was the first thing I remembered when I woke up about an hour ago. My mouth was left hanging open and I woke choking on water, violently coughing it all up. Then I kicked LJ in the stomach and told him to wake up, chastising him for not being able to watch the Lepidopterran.

"It's not my fault he stole my gun!"

"That's not the point! You can't even keep an eye on so much as an oversized fly without screwing it up LJ!"

"I'm sorry; I was tired. It's not like either of you did any better. At least I didn't have drool dribbling down my face!"

Hraggs roared out loud and starting in the left direction. I started sniffing the air and got a whiff of that Lepidopterran too.

"He's over there!" I yelled.

Two gunshots flashed in the air and we heard loud panicky panting in the distance. Damn…if we had our guns now this would be so much easier.

"Look at it this way: It's raining so hard he can barely jump in the air."

"Shut up LJ."

The Lepidopterran tripped in a shallow river, skinning his legs on underground rocks. Hraggs stopped running and I heard what sounded like a small whine.

"What?" I asked.

Hraggs nervously growled at me.

"THERE'S A GIANT ALLIGATOR IN THE RIVER?!!!"

Suddenly, a humongous blue alligator appeared from the river, ensnaring the smelly fly in its large jaws. The Lepidopterran screamed loudly for a couple of seconds and suddenly the sounds of squishing and crunching was heard several times. Then it dropped down into the water, disappearing without a trace.

"Wow that was random." said LJ.

"Yeah, random." I said.

"Really, really, random."

"Yeah…I'm surprised I didn't catch whiff of it before Hraggs."

Hraggs growled at me and snickered a little.

"I can smell better than you! It has nothing to do with me being old!"

"So…are we still on with the plan or do we have yet another one?"

Hraggs started growling and grunting a little bit.

"If you say so. Hraggs thinks we should go attack the base now. Hopefully the rain will cover our scents. What do you think LJ?"

"Like I'm really gonna listen do an eyeless alien dog!"

LJ growled gutturally in LJ's face and he gulped loudly.

"So which way's that base again?"


	9. Who let the Dogs Out? part 1

**

* * *

**

Out of the Cage

Part 1 of 2. Kenros, Hraggs, and LJ arrive at the compound and conspire to sabotage it while stealthily traversing through the place to find the crystal.

**Who Let the Dogs Out? (Part 1)**

So here we are, gazing at the Wildmutt's base out in the distance, the freezing rain pounding on our faces. It was nearly five in the morning already and no sign on sunlight was showing so we don't need to worry about getting spotted. The rain had washed away our scent so the Wildmutt's (if they somehow managed to get a whiff of us) would only detect rain water. All in all, this plan should work perfectly. Get the crystal, steal some weapons, sabotage the base and leave before anyone spots us. Hell, maybe we can even gather some Intel about the next crystals' whereabouts.

"Okay…how should we do this?" asked LJ.

"I thought mercenaries knew the tactics behind sabotage??" I asked.

"Yeah, when there aren't alien dogs that got a keen sense of smell."

"Alright…first, we need to collect as much C4 as possible and plant them around the weak points in the base. Y'know, gas tanks, control rooms, stuff like that."

Hraggs grunted at me questionably.

"I was getting to that. We find Acknit and kill him quietly, we get the crystal back, and then we walk away. It'd also be best that we find some info about the other crystal too."

"Cool. It's just like Medal of Honor!" said LJ.

I groaned and rolled my eyes.

"Let's just go before it stops raining."

* * *

Me, LJ, and Hraggs slid down the hill and ran behind a food locker, hiding from the various human mercenaries patrolling the place. I had to stop Hraggs from busting down the door and eating all the food for himself a couple of times, but so far, no one's seen us. Hraggs growled gutturally at me, nudging me to look left.

"What are those trucks for?" asked LJ.

Several trailer trucks with bright green containers on the back and blue cabins were backing up into the base's warehouse. Some of the mercenaries were "escorting" many Wildmutts into the back.

"Son of a bitch. They're using them as slave labor, smuggling them all around the world to the other bases." I concluded.

Hraggs grunted at me again.

"No, we're not gonna save them. Slave or not, these Wildmutts gotta go. They're the bad guys, remember? I'll go find some explosives and place them around this base. Hraggs, you go disarm their alarm systems in case we get spotted."

Hraggs growled.

"I'll go find Acknit and that crystal before he decided to get away again. Shouldn't be too hard to find a Stinkfly--"

I grunted, ready to correct LJ again and say Lepidopterran, but I held my mouth shut.

"I mean 'Lepidopterran' in this base."

"Okay, let's go."

The three of us split up, going in three separate directions.

* * *

Hraggs ran across the ground, snarling and grunting to himself as he hid behind the corner of a wall. Three guards were sitting and cracking wise jokes at a wooden shack with an alarm on it. One of the mercenaries simply needed to lift his arm and move it right and he'd press the alarm. Sure, the rain masked his scent, but Hraggs was pretty sure they'd see a giant orange dog in the rain, no matter how dark it was.

Hraggs made this hacking grunting sound like he was choking on something. He made sure it was loud enough for the mercenaries to hear clearly.

"Goddamnit, why can't these dogs chew their food?! You guys stay here while I go perform the Heimlich maneuver." said a mercenary.

As soon as the merc got close enough to Hraggs, he dragged him behind the corner of the wall and violently jerked his head sideways, snapping his neck.

"Hey, Gilroy! Where'd you go off to?" asked the other mercenary.

Now Hraggs was in a little trouble. Should either of the guards find him, they'd presumably fire off a shot and hit Hraggs in the chest. He wouldn't die right away, but many of the Wildmutts would wake up…and that was the last thing they needed. Sneaking up on the two wasn't a choice since they'd either hear him or see him before he attacked. Hraggs was gonna have to do this quickly.

He got a very fast head start and charged towards the guards when they turned around for one second, just to make sure no one was sneaking up on them. And then he leaped on them, roaring and showing his full set of teeth. Hraggs roared when thunder struck so no one even heard. One of the guards could only open his mouth as if he were about to scream, then he had a gigantic dog on top of him. Hraggs began to ravenously tear away at their faces and body until he was satisfied that they were dead. Hraggs jumped off the ravaged bodies and lashed his claws at the alarm system, rendering it useless.

* * *

Okay, I got the bombs. Now I just need to put them in the right places before the sun starts to come up. I walked into a room full of a bunch of sleeping Vulpimancers, quietly tip-toeing in between the crowd. A couple of human mercenaries wearing standard blue camouflage uniforms and black boots were also sleeping, not watching guard. Lucky me, I can go through here with no problem. The boiler room is just across the hallway right through the door. At the last second however, one of the mercs sneezed and woke himself up. I rapidly jumped into a locker when he shined his flashlight across the room, making sure all the Vulpimancers were still sleeping. Then I waited until he stood in one spot, crept up behind him and stabbed him in the back of the neck. I quickly hid his body in the same locker before blood hit the floor.

Now that the coast is clear, I can place the bomb. I climbed up a ladder and started moved along a steam pipe quickly, before my hands suffered 3rd degree burns. Then I jumped down in front of the boiler and put my knife in my mouth to muffle the scream. …Damnit, there's a door that leads to this section of the room. Why the hell did I just hang by the steaming pipes and burn my hands?! God, LJ's right: I am getting old and slow.

* * *

LJ was in the west wing of the base, patrolling the area for Intel and Acknit. Unfortunately, he was having no success.

"Seriously, is it this hard to find a stinky insect inside this base?" LJ said.

He sighed and hid under a table when two mercenaries walked into the room, grabbing more ammo from a weapons crate.

"Hey, when's that guy Acknit gonna get here?" asked one of them.

"Couple hours from now. I hear he's the director for some big time assault vehicle that could wipe out a small city. Calls it the G.A.T.O."

"What the hell does G.A.T.O. stand for?" asked the other one.

"I don't know ask Acknit when he gets here."

LJ riskingly shot both mercs in the chest and killed them, despite the fact his M9 pistol was silenced. LJ scurried the bodies into one of the cupboards and locked, sealing away the bodies before a Wildmutt got a whiff of the blood.

"Okay, got the Intel. Now all I gotta do is find that crystal before Acknit gets here and everything should be all right." said LJ to himself.

LJ walked into the next room, filled to the brim with snoring Wildmutts ready to be shipped out in the morning. He gulped hard and began to tread through the crowd without making physical contact with any of them. At one point, LJ almost screamed when the heel of his boot made contact with one of the Wildmutt's claws, but the Wildmutt simply growled softly and turned over onto his stomach, lying face down. After LJ searched every inch of the room, he almost began to lose hope…up until he saw a red twinkle in his eye. The crystal was in his sights. All he had to do was just walk up to it and take it. The only problem is that the crystal was lying on top of the biggest and ugliest Wildmutt in the room. It was this spiky, yellow, grotesque looking animal resting on his back, slobber falling all over his mouth and face. He looked like a baby...a disgusting spiky dog-like baby with smelly breath, but nevertheless, a baby.

"Always gotta be right on top of the bad guy…" moaned LJ.

He sighed and cracked his neck, crawling up to the spiky Wildmutt. LJ quickly swiped the crystal, but he dropped it immediately when the Wildmutt rolled over onto his stomach. LJ swore under his breath and began to ponder about his next move. He was gonna have to stealthily take the crystal right from the Wildmutt's claws. LJ moved his hand over the crystal and touched it, retracting his hand when the Wildmutt twitched and growled. He waited a while before he slowly slipped the crystal from the Wildmutt's grip, replacing it with some plastic cup he found on the floor. LJ mouthed the word "YEAH!" and did the cabbage patch and some other stupid dance moves before yelping when he tripped over a dark red Wildmutt. LJ quickly ran out the door and locked it.

* * *

Why do mercenaries like this guy always go to the bathroom alone? As soon as he comes out, I'm simply gonna bash him in the head and interrogate him for everything he knows. God, these humans are so stupid! I heard a toilet flush and a faucet turn on, indicating the mercenary was done urinating and currently washing his hands. I opened the door and banged the mercenary's head on the faucet, knocking out a tooth and busting his lip.

"What the hell?!"

"Shut up right now." I growled.

"You yell like that again, I'll drown you in the goddamn septic tank, understand?"

The mercenary shook his head.

"There are five vital weak points in this base that I need to sabotage in the next two hours. I need you to tell me where they are."

I slowly began to cut into the mercenary's throat with my knife, causing him to bleed severely.

"Stop--Stop it! We got a boiler room--"

"I sabotaged it already."

"The machinery bunker--"

"I got that too."

"A prototype missile launching system located in the basement."

"…Not familiar with that one. How long till the prototype is launched?"

"In a half hour. You'd better get down there before it's too late. I hear they're trying to launch it at Rio de Janiero, and it's capable of destroying half the city."

"Thanks."

I knocked the guard out when I hit him in the head with the butt if my gun, hiding his body in one of the stalls, stealing his radio in case LJ decides to contact me. Now…I gotta get to that missile launcher.

* * *

LJ walked into a room that lead to one of the main control rooms. The central core was this giant CPU with four terminals that could shut down the whole base or launch all the weapons that were stationed inside it. LJ knew he had to destroy the CPU somehow, since they were on a mission of sabotage. The only problem was that the door behind him locked automatically, and there was a guard that blocked the ramp leading to the terminal. If that wasn't enough, two more guards and a technician were upstairs near the CPU. He had to do this fast or else the alarm would be activated.

LJ couldn't kill anyone else without risking a Wildmutt sniffing the blood, so he would have to knock them all out. LJ ran quickly and jumped on top of the guard, knocking away his rifle and wrestling with him. The mercenary couldn't scream because LJ cupped his mouth, but he did manage to grab his Beretta 8000 from his pocket and wave it in the air. Still on the mercenary's back, he grabbed his gun and tried to bash it out of his hand. Both of them were angrily grunting and trying to punch each other. LJ was the unlucky one though, because the mercenary inadvertently fired his gun on the platform. It wasn't silenced and the ricochet noise was so loud that several of the Wildmutts growled ferociously and woke up.

"DAMNIT!!" yelled LJ.

The other mercenaries heard the shot and rushed down the ramp, only to get shot twice by the other mercenary's Beretta. LJ took out his knife and stabbed the mercenary he was on in his back, swearing at himself for how stupid he just acted. LJ pointed his gun at the technician. He needed to deactivate the alarms permanently from the main CPU core.

"Enter the deactivation codes for the alarms!" he demanded.

"What? Why?!"

"Cause you want to live! Now enter the goddamn codes before I shove this gun up your ass!!"

"Okay, okay. Just don't hurt me."

The technician turned around and started running his hands all over the keyboard, inputting a multi-coded password.

"There. The alarm's off."

The technician lied; the alarms started blaring all over the base and red and yellow lights were flashing everywhere. LJ was so upset that he shot the technician in the chest twice. He never really felt good about killing civilians, but after he did, he would just write it off as collateral damage. He was a mercenary after all.

With no other option, LJ rushed to the terminal and entered a lockdown code, cutting off any of the base's imports and exports. Even if Kenros failed to blow up the base, it'd still take a massive amount of time before they'd find the password algorithm that would get the base up and running again. LJ got the dead mercenary's radio and called Kenros.

"Kenros."

"LJ, what the hell's going on?! All the alarms just went off!"

"They set off the alarms on CPU core terminals. Even if Hraggs shut it down it still went go off."

"You got the crystal?"

"Yeah."

"Then get out now! We'll regroup a couple miles from here."

"I can't. I gave the base an all out lockdown. Nothing comes in or goes out. …You go on ahead."

"LJ, I'm coming to get you. I'll get Hraggs and we'll find our way to the core terminals. Just hold them off as long as you can!"

**To be continued…**


	10. Who let the Dogs Out? part 2

**Out of the Cage**

Conclusion. Kenros and Hraggs are forced to shoot their way to LJ in order to rescue him before the Wildmutts eat him alive.

**Who Let the Dogs Out? (Part 2)**

The alarms continued to ring in my ears, indicating that hundreds of mercenaries and Vulpimancers were heading their way to LJ, ready to rip him to shreds. Damnit! I was hoping we could do this quietly, but now…we're just gonna have to shoot our way through. I just hope that LJ can hold his ground before they get to him.

"Okay, let me explain this one more time Hraggs." I started.

Hraggs grunted.

"LJ is being held somewhere is this region, right here," I said, pointing to a map.

"We need to get to him as fast as possible before those other Wildmutts tear him apart."

Hraggs did a series of growls and grunts, asking me a question in his own native language.

"No…we're not going to eat him when we rescue him. Anyway, I'm going to take this path on the left side and shoot my way to LJ. You are going to take the right path over here and see if you get to LJ before I do."

Hraggs growled questionably.

"Because if we both go the same way and someone set a trap for us, then neither of us can rescue LJ and they'll tear him to pieces."

Hraggs growled again and nodded his head.

"Okay. You ready?"

Hraggs nodded one more time before he turned around and looked at the door.

"GO!"

Both of us kicked open the door and began to sprint down the corridor, which was lined with cracked concrete on the floor and walls. As soon as I turned a corner, many mercenaries wearing blue camouflaged pants and long-sleeved shirts and boots began to shoot hundreds of 7.62 mm bullets at me. I hid behind the wall and waited until most of the mercenaries stopped firing to reload their guns, then I opened up all four of my jaws and roared loudly in their faces, knocking them all down and shattering many of their guns. Before the first merc I saw could get up, I grabbed him with my arm and put it around his throat so I turned him into a hostage. Then I took the black CZ 85 semiautomatic pistol from his pocket and fired it four times, shooting two mercenaries in the chest. Another mercenary got off the floor and took out his Beretta 8000 and shot the merc hostage I'm holding in the arm and neck by accident. Since the hostage is now rendered useless, I tossed his deceased body aside and shot the mercenary in the leg and face. The last mercenary was shot in the back of the neck.

I released the empty magazine and took another four from the dead mercenary, realizing that I'm going to need all of them. I began to sprint to the next door and kicked it open, quickly shutting it when 20 fully armed mercenaries began to shoot at me.

"Damnit!" I yelled.

Well, that's a surprise. You'd think I'd be able to smell those humans before I even opened the door. Oh, well. At least I can think of way to kill them all before they burst through the door. I fired three bullets through the thin metal door and waited for them to return fire. I groaned loudly and fell to the floor, tricking them into coming next to the door.

"I think I got him!" yelled a mercenary.

"Go check real quickly. I hear this Benwolf is sneaky bastard."

I laid flat on my back on the ground, making sure none of the mercenaries managed to see my nose or feet or any other part of my body. I heard the mercenary quietly step next to the door and kneel down. Heh heh…he's gonna look right through the bullet holes. Perfect!

"Hey…I don't see anything."

That's cause you're looking in the barrel of my gun.

"Bang. You're dead." I said.

The mercenary gasped and shouted, "WHAT THE FU--" before I shot him in his right eye, killing him instantly. I kicked open the door and began to run around the room shooting like crazy. The next room was some sort of cafeteria that was as big as an atrium and full of tables with ketchup bottles and salt and pepper shakers. In the back was a kitchen that smelled like someone was preparing chili and tacos. I ignored the delicious fragrances and kicked over a lunch table, using it for cover. I waited for two mercenaries to try and jump over the table, but when they attempted the maneuver, I simply raised my pistol and fired into their groin and back several times. The mercenaries fell to the ground dead.

Hmm…these mercenaries have Ak 5s, and are wearing brown camouflage uniforms instead, most likely in order to distinguish ranks. The Ak 5 was Sweden's answer to America's M16 Carbine and was just as powerful. They can even come with M203 grenade launchers as well. Where they get these weapons I'm not sure of, but it can come in handy. I picked one up and started firing the rifle at the mercenaries, hitting one of them in the chest several times.

"WE NEED BACKUP!!" shouted a high ranked mercenary.

I rolled behind a rectangular column and waited until the bullets stopped blasting away the tiles on the column. Like before, I waited for a mercenary to reload his gun before I moved away from my hiding spot and shot him in the face. Three mercenaries decided to take me head on, but I shot one of them in the leg and wounded him. Another one almost shot me in the arm, but I quickly dodged it and kicked him in the stomach, knocking the gun out his hand. The wounded mercenary stood up and took out a knife and started it slashing it in my face. I repeatedly moved back and began to counter his moves up until and mercenary came from behind and put a gun to my head.

I yelped and ducked under the mercenary so he'd shoot one of his own allies in the face. Then I bit him in the arm and stole his gun, shooting two more mercenaries in the face before I turned the gun on the mercenary and shot him twice in his torso.

"UNH!"

Damnit, someone just shot me! Before I could point my gun at the mercenary that shot me in the arm, someone tackled me right into the kitchen, tossing both of our bodies on the floor. I shook my head and took a knife out the merc's pocket, throwing it at another mercenary who had an Ak 5 with an M203 grenade launcher built into his gun. He groaned loudly and slowly slid down on the wall, leaving a trail of blood before succumbing to his wound. I violently pulled up the mercenary and started punching him in the face and stomach. He managed to blindside me and kicked me next to the stove…and that giant pot full of chili. I'm still tempted to dunk my whole head inside and lap it up with my tongue, but there are a bunch of mercenaries trying to kill me. I jump kicked the mercenary and he tripped over a cart full of knives, almost getting impaled in the back by one of them. He grabbed all of the knives and started chucking all of them at me.

I yelped again and rolled out the way to avoid the stilettos and butcher knives. Then I picked up the merc and slammed his head right onto a stove, frying his face away slowly. He screamed horribly as the flesh on his cheek was slowly melting off. The smell of it only made me even more hungry; the last thing I remember eating was that rabbit a few days back. …I guess it wouldn't hurt if I got a little taste of the chili…or a big taste. I dunked my whole head into the pot of chili and noisily slurped it up, splashing some of the juices on my vest and the counter and floor. After I ate almost half the pot, I took my head out and belched loudly, shaking the slop off my face.

To my surprise, when I looked back into the cafeteria, all of the guards that remained were dead. The living ones decided to retreat for some reason.

"Hey…where'd they go?" I asked suspiciously.

"Stay here." I said, shooting the mercenary whose face I just burned off in the back.

I walked back into the cafeteria and saw that someone released a few green Vulpimancers into the area.

I chuckled. "Well…this should be fun."

* * *

Meanwhile, Hraggs was busy tearing apart mercenaries with his sharp teeth and claws. He ran down the corridor and pounced right on top of a mercenary. Then he growled ferociously and started ravaging upon his back with his teeth, swallowing the meat and bones. Hraggs snorted and sniffed the air, and then he turned a corner and headed straight towards another metal door, breaking it down with his hard head. Hraggs stopped running when he saw over twenty mercenaries carrying AK-47s which were aimed right at him. Instead of engaging all of them right then and there, he roared loudly at the group. Some of them were intimidated by the disgusting yet powerful alienated dog with blood dripping from his teeth and mouth. Hraggs noticed that a mercenary was shaking like crazy with his heat vision and turned in his direction as though he were looking at him, even though he has no eyes.

Hraggs smiled devilishly at the fearful merc and then laughed gutturally, licking his lips as his stomach growled loudly.

"Run…away!" growled Hraggs.

This was probably the first time in his whole life that Hraggs ever talked to a human in English. His voice was so garbled and menacing that it sounded like he'd be perfect for a monster movie. Then again, Hraggs was a monster…sort of. Half of the mercenaries screamed and ran away, leaving the other braver mercenaries fewer in number. In fact, there were only five of them left now. Hraggs jetted across the room and grabbed a merc by his neck, squeezing it until his neck cracked in nine different places. Two of the mercenaries shot the massive beast in the back four times, but it was nothing more than just a flesh wound to Hraggs.

He roared at the two mercenaries and kicked both of them into the wall. One of them literally went through the wall and died from severe head trauma; the other created a large hole in the wall and fell out. Hraggs went over to the mercenary and stomped on his chest, crushing his ribs and jamming his broken bones into his heart. Hraggs ran to the last two mercenaries and grabbed their arms and lifted their bodies to his mouth, eventually swallowing the two mercs and their guns. Hraggs continued to run down the base corridor until he arrived in yet another room that was filled with a small group of yellow Wildmutts. Hraggs approached the three Wildmutts and began to talk to them in his alien like growls and snarls. All of them responded fiercely and became hostile toward Hraggs. It wasn't really clear what they were saying, but Hraggs wasn't making any progress with the yellow Wildmutts. He never felt good about killing his own kind and was a tad bit hesitant at the moment. But then again, they were the bad guys. After Hraggs realized that the Wildmutts weren't going to become less hostile, he began to attack them.

Hraggs ran to one of the Wildmutts and lashed him in the face twice just before one of his friends tackled him and started clawing at him like crazy. Hraggs head butted the Wildmutt and bit him in the throat, damaging the Wildmutts carotid arteries. The two remaining Wildmutts roared loudly and started fighting Hraggs and was starting to maul him, scratching his head a little bit. Hraggs responded by grabbing a Wildmutt jaw and stretching it open, revealing his tongue. Hraggs jammed his whole head inside the Wildmutt's mouth and yanked out the tongue with his own mouth, tossing the Wildmutt aside to bleed to death. The last Wildmutt died in a similar fashion. Hraggs opened the Wildmutt's mouth with both of his hands and then jerked his head left, breaking his jaw. Then he slammed the Wildmutt against the wall and floor over and over until it whined loudly and slowly began to crawl away. Hraggs thought about letting the poor wounded creature go away, but went against the idea and tore out part of his backbone with his teeth.

* * *

A green Vulpimancer succumbed to his various bullet wounds and slouched over and fell on the ground.

"LJ!! Where the hell are you?!" I shouted.

"In here! There's a bunch of Wildmutts trying to kill me!"

After shooting a countless number of guards and Vulpimancers, I eventually arrived in the central core and found LJ fending off five blue burly Vulpimancers.

"Hey Dog Breath! Over here!" I shouted.

The Vulpimancers grunted loudly and began to charge right for me. I took out my Ak 5 (with an M203 grenade launcher built inside) and fired a grenade at the Vulpimancer, blowing it up to pieces. Just when another Vulpimancer was about to attack me from behind, I was saved by Hraggs when he bit the blue Vulpimancer in the neck and twisted it around, breaking it.

"Thanks Hraggs."

Hraggs grunted back at me.

"GUYS!! I'm still in peril here!!" yelled LJ.

I fired a numerous amount of bullets at a Vulpimancer until it stopped charging towards us and fell to the floor, dead. Hraggs jumped on top of a platform and started fighting with one of the Vulpimancers. I engaged in combat with the last Vulpimancer (realizing that my guns had no more bullets in them) and started slashing at him with my knife. I managed to slit his throat, but because of how strong and thick a Vulpimancer's neck is it only created a flesh wound for him. The Vulpimancer lashed his claws at my chest and greatly ripped my vest and left red marks on my chest. I returned the favor by stabbing the Vulpimancer several times in the torso. Then I impaled him in the stomach and ran the blade across it, spilling his intestines and stomach acid on the floor. Even a Vulpimancer can't survive something like that…and it didn't. The Vulpimancer groaned loudly and fell backwards, revealing its stomach contents. I glanced upward and saw that Hraggs had killed the other Wildmutt.

"LJ! You alright LJ?" I asked.

"Fine actually. None of the guards managed to get a shot at me and those are the only Wildmutts I've seen so far." said LJ.

"Good. Now that the base is ready for sabotage and now that we've finally got that crystal, I say it's time to leave this country and go examine that crystal."

Hraggs growled several times at me and laughed gutturally.

"…No Hraggs, I don't think if LJ shot a bullet down he'd shoot himself in the foot. Lay off the guy; he got the one item I've been searching for in less than a day." I said.

"Exactly! I'm not stupid guys! See, watch. If I shoot down then--"

LJ fired a standard handgun and shouted loudly when he shot himself in the foot, hopping up and down like an idiot.

"DAMNIT!!!"

"You shot yourself in the foot?" I asked.

"YES!!"

"…I stand corrected."

* * *

After escaping the base, we acquired a brown jeep and all of us got inside. Amazingly, Hraggs even managed to fit his bulky body mass on top of it, even though it gave us little room to move around in. The three of us (well, assuming that Hraggs can somewhat see the base) glanced at the base as I pulled out a detonator.

"3…2--"

"Just push the damn button Kenros." LJ interrupted.

I grumbled and slammed my fist down on the button. We all saw the base exploded several times and shoot out thousands of sparks and fiery blocks of concrete everywhere. I even saw a couple of humans and flaming Vulpimancers fly out as well. One of the towers groaned and fell right on top of an ammo dump, creating yet another explosion. Pretty soon, the whole facility was engulfed in a gigantic ball of flame and crumbled to the ground, completely demolished and destroyed.

"Another win for me and another dent in the Remquists' plans." I said with pride.

"Awesome! Where should we go next?"

Before I could answer, the foul stench of a Lepidopterran entered my nostrils and I heard fluttering in the distance.

"…I know that smell from anywhere." said LJ, getting a whiff of the Lepidopterrans too.

We both looked up in the sky to see a whole fleet of flying bugs heading straight for us, one of which happens to be Acknit. And if that wasn't bad enough, many of the Vulpimancers survived the explosion and were also jogging their way to our jeep.

"LJ, start the car. Start the car right now! We gotta go!"


End file.
